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If you had an antigravity drive, the only reason you would bounce around is if it’s poorly calibrated. And if you had one, why would you travel all the way to

If you had an antigravity drive, the only reason you would bounce around is if it’s poorly calibrated. And if you had one, why would you travel all the way to earth and not say hello? Your power would be so immense you could wipe out life on this planet if you chose. You have zero reason to hide.

frankquist 9y ago
Say these were aliens with an antigravity drive. They may be scientists who do not want to disturb the phenomena they are observing. They might have a Starfleet like noninterventionist philosophy. Perhaps the objects are unmanned probes akin to the ones earth sends into space. Who knows?
- valuearb 9y ago
  They could be Mohammed, or Jesus. Who knows?
  - tripzilch 9y ago
    Yeah but in all fairness, even among humans, so many people go by those names. If Ford Prefect had paid a bit more attention when he first arrived, he might have gone with one of those as well, instead.
lkrubner 9y ago
the only reason you would bounce around is if it’s poorly calibrated It's likely that there is no way to calibrate it correctly. If you don't have the benefit of gravity to hold you at a specific point of space/time, then where would you get the coordinates that would allow you to remain in a specific spot, especially when that spot is moving rapidly, relative to a previous spot in space/time?
- fapjacks 9y ago
  If you had a powerful enough computer being fed comprehensive enough sensory data, I think it would be trivial to stay in one spot relative to something else (e.g. the Earth). I mean, if you had some kind of fairly magical propulsion device and could also ignore gravity.
- jacobush 9y ago
  What the heck are you discussing?! If there was such a thing as an antigravity device, there are so many unknowns, that to even pretend we can have the slightest cue about if or how it could be calibrated, is just ... weird.
  - lkrubner 9y ago
    Even with hypotheticals, we can still think it through as clearly as possible. If gravity is a warp in space time, and you are able to unwarp spacetime, then where are you relative to someone inside of the warp? We can set aside the whole subject of gravity and simply treat this as a math problem, involving topology. If we imagine there is a way for you to unwarp a location on a manifold then you are... where? According to all we know, the situation would be ambiguous.
  - Mister_X 9y ago
    Back off, Man. These are Experts here. Show some respect.
    - jacobush 9y ago
      ? :-)
- kamaal 9y ago
  You need a real time space-time equivalent of a map to tell you how much of anti gravitons to emit in what direction to keep still. It could also be: 1. Device starts. 2. Map data not yet available. 3. Oops. Erratic movements. 4. Map data now available, device stable. Kinda sequence of steps.
Mister_X 9y ago
Why not say Hello? Yeah, why not, those arrogant pricks. If I was a member of an advanced civilization, I'd definitely want to hang out with weird bags of water, who's only claim to fame is designing, constructing, and testing, ways to destroy most life on the planet. Yeah, great times, for them, I'm sure.

frankquist 9y ago

Say these were aliens with an antigravity drive. They may be scientists who do not want to disturb the phenomena they are observing. They might have a Starfleet like noninterventionist philosophy. Perhaps the objects are unmanned probes akin to the ones earth sends into space. Who knows?

valuearb 9y ago
They could be Mohammed, or Jesus. Who knows?
- tripzilch 9y ago
  Yeah but in all fairness, even among humans, so many people go by those names. If Ford Prefect had paid a bit more attention when he first arrived, he might have gone with one of those as well, instead.

lkrubner 9y ago

the only reason you would bounce around is if it’s poorly calibrated It's likely that there is no way to calibrate it correctly. If you don't have the benefit of gravity to hold you at a specific point of space/time, then where would you get the coordinates that would allow you to remain in a specific spot, especially when that spot is moving rapidly, relative to a previous spot in space/time?

fapjacks 9y ago
If you had a powerful enough computer being fed comprehensive enough sensory data, I think it would be trivial to stay in one spot relative to something else (e.g. the Earth). I mean, if you had some kind of fairly magical propulsion device and could also ignore gravity.
jacobush 9y ago
What the heck are you discussing?! If there was such a thing as an antigravity device, there are so many unknowns, that to even pretend we can have the slightest cue about if or how it could be calibrated, is just ... weird.
- lkrubner 9y ago
  Even with hypotheticals, we can still think it through as clearly as possible. If gravity is a warp in space time, and you are able to unwarp spacetime, then where are you relative to someone inside of the warp? We can set aside the whole subject of gravity and simply treat this as a math problem, involving topology. If we imagine there is a way for you to unwarp a location on a manifold then you are... where? According to all we know, the situation would be ambiguous.
- Mister_X 9y ago
  Back off, Man. These are Experts here. Show some respect.
  - jacobush 9y ago
    ? :-)
kamaal 9y ago
You need a real time space-time equivalent of a map to tell you how much of anti gravitons to emit in what direction to keep still. It could also be: 1. Device starts. 2. Map data not yet available. 3. Oops. Erratic movements. 4. Map data now available, device stable. Kinda sequence of steps.

Mister_X 9y ago

Why not say Hello? Yeah, why not, those arrogant pricks. If I was a member of an advanced civilization, I'd definitely want to hang out with weird bags of water, who's only claim to fame is designing, constructing, and testing, ways to destroy most life on the planet. Yeah, great times, for them, I'm sure.